Thanks to all of you that come out and support oval track racing and especially those of you that take on the sometimes thankless (but always important) tasks of Race Secretary, NOTRA Club representatives, Club members, foul judges, line judges, lure operators, box operators, dog wranglers and catchers, and those many other important roles that we take on to keep the sport alive.

The BOD has reviewed the ballots cast by the clubs for the Fall 2017 rule proposals. Of the 30 eligible clubs, 12 clubs voted on the NOTRA Officers and the 6 rule proposals. All 6 of the proposals passed by a 2/3rds majority.

Rule Proposal 1 PASSED 11-1Summary of Proposal: To ensure that Other Breed race meets are offered for all eligible breeds and Clubs are not allowed to pick and choose the breed entries.See 1.4 THE OFFICIAL RACE MEET and Chapter 7 OTHER BREEDS for changes

Rule Proposal 2 PASSED 9-3Summary of Proposal: Bring to the attention of the NOTRA BOD when clubs change the starting method.See 7.2 STARTING BOXES for changes

Rule Proposal 3 PASSED 9-3Summary of Proposal: Hounds who have not been able to complete a race (DNF), who run Off Course (OC), or who have been disqualified (DQ), in 3 race meets, should be barred from entering and competing alongside well trained hounds, and require a qualifying race witnessed by a race secretary before being allowed to enter officially.See 1.11 QUALIFYING TO RACE and 6.2 DISMISSAL FOR "OFF COURSE" for changes

Rule Proposal 5 PASSED 12-0Summary of Proposal: Revise the rule book wording to allow for consistency between the By-Laws and the Rule Book.See REQUESTING AN OFFICIAL RACE MEET 2.1 REQUEST FOR LICENSE for changes

Rule Proposal 6 PASSED 12-0Summary of Proposal: Change the date for rule proposals and Nationals submissions from October 1st to October 15thSee 1.1 PROGRAM DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES for changes

As a note to clubs who may need to make revisions to the schedules they submitted, clubs who host Other Breed or All Breed race meets must include all eligible other breeds according to the new rules:

At an Official Race Meet, races may be offered to whippets or Other Breeds, or both, but all eligible breeds must be allowed to race if an Other Breed Meet is scheduled as part of the Official Race Meet.

7.1 REQUESTING OTHER BREED MEETS

Requesting a meet should be done in accordance with Chapter 2. Any NOTRA club that offers Other Breed meets must include all eligible OTHER BREEDS recognized by NOTRA. If only one breed is offered, the request should specify regional or annual national specialty. Specialties must be held by the parent breed club, which must be a NOTRA approved club. The parent breed club’s annual specialty NOTRA will not interfere with any regularly scheduled local meets. If a local club already has a meet scheduled in the same place on the same day that the parent breed club annual specialty NOTRA meet will be held, then the meet must be scheduledeither before or after the regularly scheduled local NOTRA meet.

Another new rule that will affect race secretaries is the need for official qualifying races when a dog hasn't raced successfully in recent meets or has never raced in an official meet. (Off-course, Did Not Finish, and DQ's) This is to ensure that dogs are trained before they are entered and have been reviewed by the race secretary. A dog must complete a successful qualifying run and the need for a qualifying run will be noted in the Other Breed Grading Guide to help race secretaries out in accepting entries.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me and best wishes for the new year and for the sport of NOTRA oval racing in 2018!!

This year's rule change proposals and ballots have been sent to your club NOTRA rep. If you are a member of a NOTRA club that has scheduled or held a NOTRA race meet this year (2017) your club is eligible to vote. Contact your club representative if they have not made the rule proposals available for you to review. All club members have equal voting rights.

The ballot to be returned by no later than midnight (PST) December 10, 2017. Ballots received after December 10th will not be counted.

Due to some misunderstanding with myself and the awards company the plaques are ordered from, the plaques were not shipped out in November directly to winners as planned. The good news is that I have contacted the company and the completed awards were shipped to me and I will get them to the hounds/owners this week.